Ohio National Guard prepares for deployment

Send off ceremonies for members of the 27th infantry brigade Combat team get underway Thursday morning at locations around Ohio. Major Nicole Gabriel says many of the troops are being deployed for the first time while others are being re-activated.

“A lot of these units have deployed to Europe, to Kosovo, some to Iraq,” she said. “A lot of people are first-time deployments. Some of these guys are veterans and gals are veterans of other deployments.”

Gabriel says this is the first deployment scheduled under a new Army policy that limits call-ups to twelve months total. Gabriel says the soldiers will go to Fort Hood Texas for two to three months before heading overseas to Kuwait. The Ohio National Guard counts 15,000 members, including 1,900 who are currently deployed.

Prospective Ohio drivers would see added training requirements and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles would be allowed to accept credit and debit cards under a state transportation budget that easily cleared the Ohio House on Tuesday. The $7 billion, two-year spending blueprint lays out priorities for Ohio highway, road, bridge and public safety priorities over [...]